Why Bionics and Summer School Don't Mix
by soccermonkey413
Summary: Adam has summer school, but when the Lab Rats need him for a mission that requires his super-strength, will his siblings be able to sneak him out and back before the teacher notices? (Takes place in Tracking Her Down during the two weeks Hazel and Genevieve are recovering.)
1. Chapter 1

A Lab Rats Short Story

Why Bionics and Summer School Don't Mix

Chapter 1 (Bree's P.O.V.)

"Well?" Leo demanded as Bree walked back from the bulletin board. "Spit it out Bree, who has summer school? Aside from Adam obviously."

"Hey lets not forget, I passed my gym final with flying colors," the oldest bionic said superiorly.

Chase rolled his eyes. "Adam, accidentally nailing the teacher in the head with a dodge ball flying at fifty miles an hour doesn't mean you passed, it means he's too afraid to fail you."

Adam shrugged indifferently. "Tomato, ketchup."

"So? Summer school or what?" Leo asked, practically jumping up and down from nervousness.

"Welllll…" Bree said, enjoying the building tension from her siblings as they impatiently waited. "Chase has nothing, of course, Leo you have to redo Spanish II next year but you don't have summer school for it; and Adam, congratulations! You passed your gym final which means you don't have to take summer school for gym,"

"I hear a but coming," Leo muttered to Chase.

"But, you did fail your math, science, English and Spanish classes."

"I didn't think you could even take summer school for gym," Chase whispered as Adam celebrated.

"You can't," Bree whispered back in reply, "But I wanted to give him something to be proud of."

"Hey gruntmuffin!" The teenagers rolled their eyes as Principal Perry came waddling into view. Pointing a chubby finger at Leo, she barked out, "Hope you didn't make any plans for the summer diphthong! You're on janitor duty during summer school!" she sneered.

"What?" Leo complained. "But that's not fair! I passed all of my classes!"

"I know, isn't it great? Besides, janitors cost _money_, and you're, well, free! Have fun toilet scrubbing booger-bearer!"

Cackling, the stomped back into her office, no doubt causing several small earthquakes on the way.

"Sorry Leo," said Bree apologetically, fighting to keep the smile off of her face.

"It doesn't matter, Adam can give me rides here and it'll give me an excuse to not have to make sure Chase eats while he obsessively stares at Genevieve," Leo shrugged.

Bree slyly glanced at him to see if Chase was listening, but instead he was looking sadly at a picture of Genevieve sticking her tongue out at the camera inside his locker.

"Fair point," she conceded, but that was all she was able to get out before Leo suddenly snatched her necklace mints off of her and popped one in his mouth.

"Hey!" she complained but he didn't hear her since he was about fifty feet away calling out, "Janelle! Wait up!"

Rolling her eyes, Bree grabbed the last of her textbooks out of her locker and flicked Chase in the forehead.

"Ow! What?" he complained, coming back to reality.

"You were zoning out again," she informed him before dragging Adam away from the hot dog machine he'd installed in his locker. "Come on guys, we have to get back. I have a date with Owen later and if I have to meet him in the same outfit I went to school in, I will _kill_, the both of you."

She smirked as her brothers nodded in terror. _There are perks to being a hormonal teenage girl with super speed_, she reflected.

Walking outside she yanked Leo away from his conversation with Janelle and pulled him to the car. "I'll call you!" he yelled.

"Leo's got a date!" were the first words out of his mouth when they entered the car.

Adam grinned. "Good for you little bro! How much are you paying her?"

"I didn't have to bribe her to go on a date with me," Leo said, looking offended.

"Blackmail?" Adam asked in confusion.

"Just start the car," Leo snapped, looking nettled and causing his siblings to start laughing.

PAGE BREAK

"What are you doing?" Bree demanded as she walked into the lab. Hazel was currently sifting through the contents of what was undoubtedly Bree's makeup bag. That wasn't the odd part. It was normal for Hazel to try and figure out what things the teens now considered normal was seeing as she'd been locked underground since she was born. It had taken her three days to figure out how to use silverware. The odd part was that the makeup was strewn around the floor and in her hair.

"How on earth are you supposed to disguise yourself with this stuff?" Hazel demanded. "Honestly! I mean, where are the fake eyebrows? The stick on moles? And don't even get me started on the lack of colored contacts!"

Bree realized where she was coming from and buried her face in her hands. "Hazel. That's not for disguising yourself. It's just regular makeup. You know. Blush, concealer, lip gloss."

Hazel stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language, which was saying something since the girl spoke two thousand seven hundred and twelve of them. "Heh?"

"Makeup. It makes you look prettier. Here, I'll show you." Walking over, she collected what was left, and grabbed a mirror. Using her super speed, she quickly applied the makeup and presented herself for Hazel's judgment.

The conscious twin gave her the once over before pronouncing, "You looked prettier before."

Bree raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

Hazel nodded. "Definitely. You don't need the makeup. Why do people wear it anyway? It looks ridiculous."

Frowning, Bree replied, "I don't know. But all the girls do it, so —"

"And since when are you something to do what most people do anyway?"

"Hazel shouldn't you be in bed anyway?" Asked Leo as he and her other brothers walked in.

"Oh please. If you don't let me stay _out_ of bed I'll freeze you to the floor and not set you free."

"Just let her relax Leo. Besides, who's going to tell Mr. Davenport anyway?" Adam suggested.

"Has there been any change in Genevieve?" Chase demanded.

The mood changed immediately. "No. No not yet," Hazel said sadly, casting a glance at the curtain that separated them from the cots.

If Bree squinted, she could make out an outline through the gauzy curtain of a girl lying on a hospital bed, machines hooked up to her, IV's feeding fluids into her system, heart monitors making sure there were no failings and countless other things going on.

"Chase, I miss her too but she's going to wake up soon. And you can't just sit there and stare at her for hours on end. You've barely done anything else for days now." Bree said gently.

"I want to be there when she wakes up," Chase said.

"Yeah, but Chase she _will_ wake up. But until she does, she'd want you to live your life, not put it on hold for her."

"She's right you know," Hazel said. "And don't worry. Seeing as I _can't_ go anywhere without the warden throwing a hissy fit, if she wakes up you'll be the first to know."

Leo opened his mouth, probably to tell Hazel to not refer to Mr. Davenport as the warden but then seemed to think better of it and closed his mouth again.

"Now go and have some fun. You should enjoy your summer vacation while it lasts before Mr. Davenport starts that lovely little twenty-four seven training regime I've heard so much about."

As Bree zoomed upstairs to start picking out an outfit, she marveled at the fact that although Hazel was confused by things as simple as napkins, she already had sarcasm down to a 'T'.


	2. Chapter 2

A Lab Rats Short Story

Why Bionics and Summer School Don't Mix

Chapter 2 (Bree's P.O.V.)

"Owen, I'm sorry I couldn't make it but like I said, I had a family situation," Bree argued with her boyfriend over the phone.

She ignored a clearly eavesdropping Chase as Owen's angry tone came trickling through the earpiece.

"No I'm not cheating on you!" Bree snapped angrily, before his voice cut her off again.

"I don't want to have this conversation over the phone. I need to go and paint my feelings. I'll see you at the school and we'll talk about this then."

A soft _click_ told Bree he'd hung up on her and she scowled. "Ugh!" she snarled, before chucking her phone across the room. Unfortunately it shot straight at Chase's head.

With an abrupt yelp Chase dove behind the couch just in time to duck the phone whizzing past his skull at sixty miles an hour before it smashed into the wall hard enough to make a dent. And shatter the phone.

Bree winced before walking over and flopping on the couch with a moan.

"Hair was getting a little long anyway," she heard Chase mutter to himself as he ran a hand through the strands her phone had nearly skewered while she watched him through her eyelashes.

Walking over he sat down next to Bree. "What's wrong?" he asked in a tone that signified, 'I'm-so-smart-I'm-sure-I-can-figure-this-out'.

"Don't pretend you weren't eavesdropping," Bree muttered before grabbing a pillow and attempting to smother herself with it. "I hate boys," she told the pillow.

The pillow was not a good conversationalist.

"Bree, just talk to Owen. And now before I get dragged down into the world of stereotypical teenage girl romance, I'm going to get a sandwich."

Chase walked over to the kitchen but his sandwich plans were interrupted as the floor suddenly started to shake.

Ducking under the table, Bree watched as Chase managed to drag himself underneath the doorway. Taking a breath, she tried counting the seconds, waiting as they passed by in agonizingly long breaths. Her knuckles turned white from the grip she kept on the table leg and then suddenly she stopped counting as a long, loud, petrified scream sounded from down below them.

PAGE BREAK

Coughing as she swatted her way through the dust, Bree and Chase took the stairs (the elevator was a wreck,) down to the basement lab to find Hazel and Genevieve.

Descending the final level, Bree clapped her hands over her mouth at the sight that greeted her. The equipment was strewn across the floor, part of the ceiling had cracked and Hazel was lying next to one of the tables with a thin line of blood trickling down her skull.

"Hazel," Bree muttered in concern, jogging over and kneeling down next to the unconscious girl.

Gently slapping her cheeks, Bree gave up gentle and quickly (_really _quickly,) grabbed a pitcher of water from upstairs. Hefting it, she poured it over the girl's face.

Hazel's eyes snapped open and she jumped up, sputtering and swearing as she coughed up water.

"What was that for?" she demanded.

"Hate to cut your nap short Sleeping Beauty, but we need to get you taken care of. We heard you scream."

"Yeah, so?" Hazel asked in confusion.

"_So_, screaming technically signifies trouble," Bree responded wryly. "What happened?"

"Nothing much. Genevieve started mumbling to herself and triggered an earthquake. I went to calm her down only to have a force field pop up and send me flying. See what I get for trying to be a nice person."

"Run that by me again?" Bree said, her brain still stuck on the second sentence. "Are you saying _Genevieve_ triggered the earthquake?"

"Yeah. It's one of the effects of our link. If we're close enough then we can sense bionic outputs and about a second before the quake started she unleashed this huge blast of energy."

"How huge?" Chase asked warily.

"Do you remember pearl harbor?" Hazel asked. "Just, shoom," she continued when they nodded, miming an explosion with her hands.

Bree walked over to her comatose friend and gently ran a hand down her face. Making sure the medical equipment was intact — the force field seemed to have protected everything — she snatched an ace bandage from the cabinet and walked back, intending to wrap Hazel's head only to see the girls hands already on her skull. The skin was knitting back together, but the better her head looked the worse the rest of her became.

"Hazel, are you sure you should be healing yourself?" Bree cautioned. "You just turned white as a sheet."

"Deal with it," she snapped in reply, slightly out of breath from the exertion as she placed her hands on her knees.

Straightening up, she walked over and had a very brief, very colorful conversation with Eddie in which Bree added several new words to her vocabulary courtesy of Hazel, all of which she could have done without.

As the talking ceased the television flickered on to show the Channel 7 News Report, which featured an oilrig that didn't look good.

"What are we watching?" Bree questioned.

"I got Eddie to see if Hurricane Genevieve over there had done any major damage to the rest of the city. From the looks of it, the answer's a resounding yes," Hazel whispered, eyes glued to the screen.

"The earthquake that happened approximately nine minutes ago is still baffling our on hand scientists as to what could have possibly caused such a sudden and violent shift in the earths crust, one big enough to garner a 6.8 magnitude rating on the Richter Scale."

Bree slowly turned and looked at the unconscious girl behind her, and wondered if she was aware of the damage she had just caused.

"Death reports are still ongoing, however we can confirm that casualties are high and construction will be needed on a majority of buildings in the area, specifically the oilrig a few miles west of town. The vibrations have caused the structure's stability to drop low enough that even now, workers are currently evacuating the structure for their own safety. If left unchecked, this rig could cause permanent damage to our ocean's ecosystem."

"Chase, you have _got_ to get your girlfriend under control," Bree said, burying her face in her hands. A screeching of tires signified that Mr. Davenport was back and a minute later, he ran into the lab, tucking his car keys into his pocket. "Bree, Chase, suit up now. Where's Leo? Leo!"

"He's the summer school janitor, remember?" Her brother reminded him as they quickly stepped inside their capsules to change into their mission suits. Mr. Davenport scowled in response as he quickly pulled up screens from his cyber desk.

"OK, we need to get him out of there now. We don't have long."

"Don't have long before what?" Chase asked.

"That earthquake jeopardized an —"

Hazel cut him off. "Oil rig. We know, we saw the newscast."

"Thank you Ms. Know-It-All," Mr. Davenport pouted.

"You're welcome Mr. Too-Proud-To-Admit-I'm-As-Smart-As-Him," Hazel replied sweetly as she gently stroked Genevieve's hair.

"You are not!" Mr. Davenport pouted.

Bree interrupted the bickering duo. "Guys, as much as I would love to watch this debate of yours, I have a question. Why can't we just take Hazel? She's got super strength too."

But Mr. Davenport shook his head. "No, she's still too weak, I can't risk sending her out there."

"OK, then how do we get Adam out of school?"

"Well the earthquake will have stopped classes, and the emergency procedure is to evacuate the school once the shaking's stopped. But if there were no casualties, then in a few minutes they'll be going back in," Chase responded.

"What if there was something to keep them out?" Hazel asked. "Something like, oh I don't know. Pizza?"

PAGE BREAK

Bree and Chase waited as the hijacked pizza truck came rolling down the road past the milling students and teachers.

Just as it was about to turn away, Chase used his molecular kinesis to heft up the nails they'd brought, and flung them at the tires, puncturing them and releasing the air.

Mr. Davenport, disguised as a pizza delivery guy, stepped outside of the truck and conversed briefly with the physics teacher who'd come over to check on him.

A few seconds later, the two men turned around and shouted, "Free pizza for everyone!"

All the students ran over cheering, except for the unlucky few who had sustained injuries and were being treated. Spotting her other two brothers, Bree zipped over and grabbed Adam and Leo, pulling them over to where she and Chase were hiding.

"Adam, suit up," Chase instructed as he tossed their older brother his mission suit.

"Leo, Mr. Davenport will explain everything but we need you to cover for Adam OK? If they start to head back in, stall for time."

"Do I still get pizza?" Adam asked, having quickly pulled on his gear.

"If we get back in time, then sure, you can have pizza," Bree consoled him while secretly rolling her eyes.

"What about me?" Leo complained.

"Yes Leo, you can have pizza too," Bree ground out, biting her lip to keep from using a few choice words Hazel had inadvertently taught her.

Linking her brothers' arms through hers, the three of them shot off for the oilrig while Chase explained the situation to Adam, cliff-notes version.

"Let me get this straight: Genevieve triggered the earthquake?" Adam clarified, his voice sounding strange due to the fact that he was talking while being pulled along at the speed of sound.

An up and down movement on her shoulder told Bree that Chase was nodding.

"Do you think she could cause a smaller one to get me out of a test on Friday?" Adam asked eagerly.

A 'whap' sound gave Bree the idea that Adam had been smacked on the head, and the disgruntled "Ow!" that followed confirmed it.

Rolling her eyes at their pettiness, she parked them on the oilrig before they grabbed their coms units and inserted them into their ears.

"OK Mr. Davenport, we're here. What do we need to do?" Bree demanded as she scanned their surroundings.

"About time," the inventor muttered, the sounds of kids chatting filling up the background. "Alright, you guys will have to have flawless execution with this mission OK? We only get one shot at this."

The bionic teens nodded, ready to receive their assignments.

"OK, here's what we need to do."


	3. Chapter 3

A Lab Rats Short Story

Why Bionics and Summer School Don't Mix

Chapter 3 (Bree's P.O.V.)

"That's it Adam, easy does it," Chase said tensely as Adam finished using his laser vision to clear away the last of the debris. "OK, we're done. Now we need to hurry up and get back to school before they finish the pizza and find out you're gone."

As Adam clambered onto her back and she linked Chase's arm with hers, Bree ground her teeth in frustration as she tugged the two boys along. She would've preferred if Adam could've been on her other arm, but a piece of shrapnel had cut into his knee making it hard for him to walk. There was also the unfortunate fact of her hyper extended elbow, due to her fall thirty feet off a ledge while she'd been fixing the compressor unit.

Speeding back to the alley where they'd left their clothes, Adam gingerly got off her back, making sure to keep the weight off of his right leg and peeled off his mission suit. Bree tactfully turned her back on her exposed brother as Chase rewrapped the gauze on his leg where the metal shrapnel had cut into him.

A zipping told her that Adam now had his jeans on again, and she turned around, being careful not to jar her elbow.

Pulling on his shirt, Adam worked out a crick in his neck and turned around to the school before giving an exclamation of disappointment. "The pizza's gone!" He crowed in disbelief.

Bree bit the inside of her cheek to keep from making a withering retort. Normally she had patience for Adam's childishness but the fact that she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night, combined with the earthquake, worry about Genevieve and the pain in her elbow, had shortened her temper immensely. She was not in a generous mood at the moment.

"We're having pizza for dinner," Adam declared.

"Whatever Adam." Bree replied tightly, unable to keep the snap out of her voice. "Should I order you a filet mignon while we're at it? Or how about a sparkling apple cider?"

"Bree…" Chase intervened, warning in his tone.

"Did I do something?" Adam asked in confusion.

"It's not your fault Adam," Chase assured him. "Bree's just a bit tense right now."

"Whatever," Bree said with a role in her eyes. "Come on Chase lets go." Without waiting for a response, the bags were in her hand, Chase was on her good arm and they were rocketing through the city at about eight hundred miles an hour.

Slamming on her brakes hard enough to leave skid marks, Bree parked herself and her brother in the room where they stored their gear. Turning to opposite sides of the room, Bree quickly changed out of her mission suit and back into her favorite pair of skinny jeans with a teal top and colorful Doc Martens on her feet, before she impatiently began tapping her foot, as she waited for Chase to finish so they could lock the door.

"Hurry _up_ slow poke," Bree snarled, not really sure who she was angry with.

"Not all of us have super speed Bree," her younger brother reprimanded her as he calmly tugged on his shoes before reaching for his shirt. She wanted to smack him for being so calm.

"Wipe that grin off your face," she growled as he turned around and she saw that had a smile on his face.

He simply smiled wider, but when she shot him a death glare that would've done the twins proud and cocked her arm as if to throw a punch, the grin slid off his face faster than Adam fell asleep during algebra.

"Did I do something?" Chase asked quizzically as they walked outside — well Chase walked: she ran — and used their fingerprints to seal the door shut.

"No. What, I'm not allowed to be hormonal when I want to?" Bree retorted. "And don't you _dare_ roll your eyes Chase Davenport!"

"OK. Relax, they're perfectly stationary. See?"

Bree ground her teeth to keep from screaming. Why was he so calm? She wanted him to yell at her, wanted him to pick a fight so her temper could have some outlet. Under other circumstances she'd punch a wall, but Mr. Davenport said that they'd reached their maximum number of repair calls for the month due to her little tantrums, so that option was still out of bounds for another two weeks. Instead, she simply tossed her hair, glared witheringly at her brother, and flounced over to the punching bag, which she preceded to thoroughly abuse with punches and high kicks until it exploded from the force and flew backwards into the Leo's mission specialist desk. Breathing heavily, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and stepped into her capsule to change her shirt. Stepping back out, she saw Chase standing against the wall, arms folded as he looked at her in amusement. "You OK?" he asked, the barest hint of a tease in the question.

"Shut up know it all," Bree growled. Angrily, she walked over to the chair and pulled out Adam's ePod. He may be an idiot but he was right about one thing: Taylor Swift _was_ soothing.

She put on headphones and closed her eyes, but instead of contentment, anger started swirling through her midsection. What was _wrong_ with her today?

Furiously wrenching off the headphones, she put Adam's ePod back before giving into temptation and hurling the headphones across the room.

"Come on Bree. Talk to me." She whirled around in surprise and realized Chase had come up behind her and was sitting down, waiting for her to talk.

It wasn't easy. Bree was quite keen of the notion of breaking things at the moment. Fighting an urge to use a choice few words Hazel had inadvertently taught the bionics when the twin had stubbed her toe, she eyed the seat suspiciously as though it were about to swallow her up. Finally, she reluctantly sat down, muscles tense, poised to spring up at any moment.

"What's the matter?" Chase asked patiently.

"I don't know," she snapped, feeling nettled. "Can't I just be angry for no reason?"

Chase nodded. "Of course you can. I get angry for no reason all the time. But you can't be _furious_ for no reason, and you bypassed furious when you nailed a punching bag across the room."

"Stop it!" Bree demanded, a snap in her tone.

"Stop what?"

"Being so calm. It's infuriating."

"Why?" Chase pressed.

"Because _I'm_ not calm!"

"Why?"

"Because I'm angry!"

"Why?"

"STOP IT!" Bree demanded loudly, breathing heavily.

Chase stared at her unblinking. "Why?"

"Because you're talking to me, trying to figure out what's wrong but Owen just assumes the worst, he won't even _speak_ to me when something goes wrong —"

"You're mad at Owen." Chase interrupted.

"Don't be ridicu —" Bree began, before stopping abruptly as it hit her like a punch in the gut. She _was_ mad at Owen. She was mad he didn't give her a chance to explain, she was mad she couldn't tell him the truth about why she was constantly disappearing, she was mad that she didn't know if it would work out and mad that she was afraid that she would get her heart broken like she had with Ethan, and she was mad that he had that much power over her. Placing her head in her hands, Bree began to cry.

A gentle hand began rubbing her back, and she buried her face in Chase's shirt as she cried. She was _furious_. Pulling back, she spoke to Chase, fighting to keep the sobs out of her voice. "I hate this."

"Hate what?" Chase asked, pushing her as always, to talk it out.

"Feeling this angry. That he has so much power over me," she supplied.

Chase thought about it, still rubbing her back, before gently smiling at her. "Then don't let him."

"What?" Bree frowned in confusion. Just like that? she thought. "Just like that?" she asked, out loud this time.

"Just like that," Chase repeated. "At some point along the road, you've made _him_ responsible for _your_ happiness. Change that. Make him _contribute_ to your happiness, but don't make him the source of it."

"Look who's talking," Bree said in a watery voice as her tears trickled in between her lips and the taste of salt filled her mouth. "You've barely even eaten since Genevieve slipped into that coma."

"We're not talking about me," said Chase defensively.

Unwilling to let him off the hook that easily, Bree scowled. "Well _I'm_ talking about you. How do you two do it?"

"Do what?" Chase relented.

"Be together so easily!" Bree exclaimed, more tears finding their way down her cheeks. "You and Genevieve never fight for more than a few hours, and I've never seen you two happier than you are with each other! She's responsible for _your_ happiness, and yet you never get angry about it. How do you do it?" She demanded.

Chase thought about it for a moment, before shrugging. "She's not responsible for my happiness. And I do it because I really care about her."

"How do you trust her that much?" Bree whispered, needing an answer. "She has so much power over you but you _give it to her_! How do you do that?"

"Because I'm in love with her, and I know she feels the same way about me," Chase said. The blood rushed to his face as he said the words, and she could see the defiant way he looked at her as he said it, waiting for her to laugh and take a swing at him, waiting for her to roll her eyes and say the only thing he loved was physics. But instead she simply stared at him, shock numbing her body. They loved each other. They loved each other enough to be responsible for the others happiness and trust that they wouldn't abuse it, and Chase loved Genevieve enough to be able to say it as easily as breathing. Chase was fifteen years old. He shouldn't even know what love _was_, but he did. Bree wanted that. She wanted it so bad it hurt.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Anytime."

PAGE BREAK

"Hey Adam," Bree called. "Can you come here for a minute?" It had taken her fifteen minutes of a very intense, internal debate with herself, but she had finally shelved her pride and come upstairs to apologize to Adam.

"That depends," he replied, not lifting his eyes from his sandwich. "Are you going to bite my head off if I do?" Bree winced, but didn't reply. She deserved that. "Please?"

Sighing, he stood up and walked over, dusting crumbs off his jeans as he did so. "I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier," she apologized. "I'm just… having a rough time right now, but it was wrong of me to take it out on you. I shouldn't have done that."

"I forgive you," he said simply.

Bree blinked. She'd been expecting blackmail. "That's it?" she asked incredulously.

"Life's too short to go around holding grudges," said Adam and a sad look entered his eyes. "Genevieve's taught us that."

Bree's eyes flashed down to where her friend was lying downstairs in a coma she might never wake up from, Chase watching over her having resumed his roll as 'Ghost of the Sick Room' once she'd finished her sob fest. She nodded. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it baby sister," Adam grinned.

Relieved that they'd cleared the air, Bree walked over and poured herself a glass of orange juice as Adam went back to his sandwich and Hazel came up the stairs.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Bree replied, going thorough the motions of pretending she could change the girls mind.

"Shouldn't you mind your own business?" Hazel retorted before walking over to Adam.

"So Adam, allow me to make you a deal."

"What sort of deal?" her brother asked, his mouth stuffed full of turkey.

"I see the way you struggle with text_books_," Hazel said and Bree frowned as Adam stiffened. She peered over the rim of her glass at the two of them as he nervously swallowed. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said quickly, his shaking voice betraying him.

"I can help you. If something like this happens again, it'll be too hard to sneak you out. I went on the school's website and if you write a paper for each of the subjects that meets a certain criteria, you can graduate summer school early. I can help you out in a way that _you'd_ understand."

Adam raised his eyebrows at Hazel, before plastering a grin on his face, but Bree could see it was fake. "Sorry Hazel, but I really don't know what you're talking about. I'll see you guys later 'K?"

With that, he walked downstairs so fast Bree could've sworn that _he_ was the one with super speed instead of her.

"What was that all about?" she asked curiously.

"He'll tell you when he's ready," Hazel replied. "I just wish he'd let me help."

"Help with what?"

"Just something he's working through." Bree opened her mouth to pry but Hazel scowled. "Don't ask Bree, because it's not my problem to talk about. He'll tell you when he's ready."

Instead of clicking her jaws shut, Bree tilted her glass up and finished off the rest of the orange juice. "Fair enough." She was about to say more, but then a voice crackled over Eddie's systems. "Guys! Get down here! Genevieve's awake!"

PAGE BREAK

Speeding down the stairs with Hazel on her am so fast she nearly got a whiplash, Bree halted next to the bed to see a barely conscious Genevieve. Her eyes blinked slowly as she smiled blearily up at them.

"Hey guys," she whispered, her voice hoarse. Hazel gently knelt down on her knees and gingerly embraced her twin, careful not to disturb the many tubes coming out of her arms.

"How ya holdin' up sis?" Hazel asked quietly.

"Working on it," Genevieve assured her softly. Her eyes found her boyfriend and she smiled. "Hi Chase."

"Hey," he replied, a smile on his lips. Bree's throat contracted with envy as she stared at what they had, seeming to have an entire conversation without opening their mouths. She _wanted_ that.

A smile etched on the girls pale lips, her eyelids slowly fluttering closed again. "Genevieve?" Adam asked uncertainly. No answer. Bree hit her leg in frustration as their friend once again slipped into a coma.

Adam scowled, Chase looked like he was about to cry and Hazel swore so violently Bree was surprised her ears didn't start bleeding.

But it didn't matter. Genevieve had woken up once now. And that meant she would wake up again. With that realization in mind, a smile slowly worked its way across Bree's lips as she felt something she hadn't felt in days where Genevieve was concerned.

Hope.

**AN: Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait, I promise that I'll never make you wait _that_ long again. Ten days at the most. ;) Anyway, to make it up to you I'll be making an effort to post Chapter 1 of my next short story by as soon as Halloween. So short story 2 is going to be called One Day At A Time, and it's going to focus on/be about Genevieve, Hazel, Dakota, Elizabeth and Frank's time in captivity with Douglas while they're kids, and lead up to Genevieve and Hazel deciding that they have to escape. Here's the summary, just to hold you over until then:**

_**"Just get through today." That is the motto of Genevieve and Hazel's life. To just get through one day after the next, to make it through and hope that somehow tomorrow will be better. But what they don't know is that sometimes places never get better. Sometimes you have to leave them behind.**_

**So anyway, sorry again for the long wait. I'll have ODAAT out as soon as I can. Love y'all!**

**-soccermonkey413**


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